I remember my mum hated the song Eloise and when I asked her why, she said it was because Barry Ryan got seriously burned when they were filming a video for it. Apparently there was supposed to be some stunt in a phone box and it went wrong, I've never found anything to back it up
I don't know if this helps anyone,i was also b leeds 1944 and from my house to roundhay open swimming pool I passed there house I think it was elmet ave I knew which house it was.
I was a big fan of marion ryan, I used to go out with a girl carol and meet paul/barry at the swimming pool with some more girls liz,chris some more girls/boys I cant remember them all some went roundhay high school and some to braimwood.
Meeting paul/barry happened quite often mostly after school or w/ends,they were about 8/10 of us
My cash strapped uncle sold a bronze of my cousin, Sarah to one of the Ryan brothers. He was an art student in Birmingham and did this bronze of his first born as a baby, but was too poor to keep it. Anyway, it sold for £60 in about 1970 which certainly paid a few months rent.
That incident happened in the summer of 1969 at a fotoshooting for Bravo magazine. That was the leading music/youth magazine in those days. They sometimes did some telephone events for fans, who could call "their star" at a certain time. They planned this for Barry Ryan and to illustrate that millions tried to get through to him, they had the idea for a pic of him holding a smoking telephone. But something went wrong, the telephone exploded and caused some minor burns. According to some report only few scars remained on his ear and on his neck. Bravo turned it into a big story for weeks showing him as a bandaged mummy. According to some later interviews the shock for him was bigger than the wounds. Barry Ryan remained popular in Germany, but that incident was never talked about, when he appeared on some tv shows.
The internet can be a wonderful place. I had a vague memory of hearing that Barry Ryan was burned in a telephone box - I was 4 years old (yes, I have a ridiculous memory) & recall being quite upset (big sister was a fan). Anyway, as years passed I assumed I must have just had a bunch of muddled memories so was quite amazed to discover that such a long thread existed confirming my freakish memories were in fact correct! Thank you all!